IL Recruiting Invitational: Palm Beach Revolution Take 2016 Title

The first championship game of the inaugural Inside Lacrosse Recruiting Invitational set the bar really high, featuring two remarkable comebacks and a beautiful win-preserving save as Palm Beach Revolution beat the LB3 National team 8-7 in the 2016 championship.

PBRev middie Colin O'Hare and goalie Tyler Kendrigan were the stars of the game, as O'Hare finished with three goals and an assist and Kendrigan made nine stops, including the game-winning save.

Palm Beach Revolution jumped out to a 5-0 halftime lead, and LB3 made a furious comeback, scoring the next seven goals.

Cameron Thompson cut through the middle of the defense and finished lefty to stop LB3’s run, O’Hare tied it and then Zachary Ranta finished a pass from Liam Lisec to give PBR an 8-7.

“I told the guys at the final timeout that win or lose, I was proud of their effort and competitive spirit to come back down two late after getting the lead,” Revolution coach Dan Loftus said.

Palm Beach Revolution took a 2-0 lead as attackman Riley Smith finished low to low and took a check up high that drew a flag.

The first half then featured several missed extra-man chances. PBR wasn't able to convert the EMO, and a minute later Danny Pagano gave LB3 a three-minute man-up, which also went unconverted.

Smith gave PBR a 4-0 lead on a nice righty shot from the wing, and Tyler Jerd finished lefty high to low in transition to make it 5-0 with three minutes to go in the second quarter, and Kendrigan made a nice save before halftime to preserve the scoreless half.

LB3’s Sean Smart opened the scoring in the second half, and Jack Ryan cut the PBR lead to three with an excellent lefty rip from about 8 yards. LB3 went man-up on a delay of game, and Justin Kabo stepped up 3 yards and ripped righty. Shawn Finnerty cut it to one right before the end of the third quarter. It became a new ballgame on a transition goal that Kevin Lacon finished to make it 5-5, then Reed Bagwell gave his team the lead.

To make matters worse, LB3 went two man-up on a PBR crosscheck, and Smart went high to high to make it 7-5.

After PBR’s comeback, LB3 defender Jeff Durden gave his team a chance with a nice takeaway, then the teams traded turnovers to give LB3 a chance to tie in the final :30.

LB3 coach Liam Banks literally drew a play on his hand, and coming out of a timeout an LB3 shooter hit a pipe. Off the restart, LB3 got one more look, and Kendrigan was able to kick it away to avoid overtime.

“There were cutters coming from everywhere and I was able to see the feed come from behind and I stuck my leg out and got a piece of [the last shot],” Kendrigan said.

Palm Beach Revolution’s championship was a redemptive story. After coming together for the first time in advance of the Baltimore Summer Kickoff on Saturday, the team loaded with defensive standouts like Brandon and Colin Hayek, Austin Paxson and Danny Pagano lost its first three games of the IL Invitational by an average of two goals. They upset a stacked Mesa Fresh Fever 2016 team in a play-in/quarterfinal game, however, then beat ADVNC 2016 8-4 in the semifinals to set up another meeting vs. LB3.

Third-place game: Mesa Fresh Fever wins consolation game

The Fever were upset earlier in the tournament, but that didn't keep them from putting up an inspired performance in the consolation game, topping ADVNC 11-4.

Two high-level DI commits led the way. First was Michael Sowers, who had four goals and an assist on the day. Attackman Forry Smith, a Hopkins commit had three goals and two assists for the Philly-based program that went 5-1 over the three-day tournament.

Smith had 15 goals and seven assists over the tournament, and Kyle Anderson, an attackman, had 14 goals and three assists.